Newbie Needs help/suggestions please

Hi there, I was asked to take some photos of a local band while they play. My question is what are the settings I would use on my camera to get good photos of the musicians???? It will be a in a bar/club setting. I am using a Nikon D5000, have a 55-300 lens I just bought 2 days ago. I am new to photography, especially shooting bands, so please be exact as possible. Thanks for your time.

Hi and welcome...You've taken on a tough task...Have a look at You Tube

The best answer is: Depends. There is no such thing as a 'band in a club' setting.

It depends on the light that's available. You can't just choose an aperture, shutter speed and ISO without knowing how much light there will be. Some venues can almost blind you, other are so dark you can barely see your way to the Pee Room.

For me, it's usually high ISO (no flash used) - 1600 on up, fast shutter speed - at least 1/100 and whatever aperture you get with the previous two settings (choosing aperture priority). Or, if you shoot manual with Auto ISO, set shutter priority to a respectable speed (>1/100) and pick your aperture, which will be f/5.6-f/8.

a fast lens for starters , buy a 1.8 50mm or 1.8 35mm they can be bought for about 150-250 dollars , im not sure about the 5000 but i dont usually push my d7100 past 1600iso , you might get 800 ok results with software noise reduction

if you shoot wide open then make sure you are accurate with your focusing , best thing about digital is you can experiment and it costs nothing

I am very new to all of this. Could you please explain waht exactly "Noise" is in a photo???

NightOwl73 said:

I am very new to all of this. Could you please explain waht exactly "Noise" is in a photo???

Click to expand...

It looks like grain. The higher you push the ISO, the more noise you introduce into the photo. As previously suggested, watch some youtube videos, including the exposure triangle.

you really need too watch some basic photography tutorials on the link between aperture , shutterspeed and iso it will help you out

its a tough assignment if you do not understand these basic things and know your camera very well too adjust these and know what the end result should be

the reason you can adjust these settings is because you need too , we can not tell you specific settings unless we are there and know the light , light changes all the time so you need too adjust too suit

if you want too take them shoot in raw so you can bring out the shadows in post , youd be surprised at what you can bring out

NightOwl73 said:

I am very new to all of this. Could you please explain waht exactly "Noise" is in a photo???

Click to expand...

ISO 100:





ISO 400:





ISO 1600:





ISO 6400:





ISO 256000:

Welcome,are you sure you want to do this so early in your learning curve,if its just for fun then ok but dont be too disappointed if you fail.

well done a picture says a thousand words , so you see if possible shoot on iso 100 but its not always possible , the less light the more iso you need or the wider aperture you need or the slower shutter speed you need , a combination of all three , in low light you have too sacrifice something , in your case you will be shooting moving people so you need a shutter speed at least your focal length , so you need a wider aperture and higher iso too compensate , if its not moving you can use a tripod and use very low shutter speeds to keep your iso low , you can also shoot smaller apertures too keep it lower , test your iso like above shoot a series and see what you think is respectable noise , you can make it look better with software

on my camera i try too keep it 400 and lower , but im not afraid too push too 1600 if i absolutely need too